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Niki Bakoles
|found = October 8, 2000|missing from = Renton, Washington|identified = August 2012|age = 19-20|cause of death = Presumed homicide|status = Unsolved|location = Great Salt Lake, Utah|timespan = 12 years}}Nikole Kristina "Niki" Bakoles, previously known as Saltair Sally, was a young woman who had gone missing from Washington who was later found deceased in Utah. Her death cause was undetermined, but investigators believe she was murdered. Case In 1997 or 1998, Niki had left Washington state and moved to Sandy, Utah, to live with her boyfriend, Joel, who had a tumultuous relationship with her. When she moved to Utah, she gave family her phone number and address. Niki began using drugs not long after moving to Utah. She returned home to Washington, pregnant and addicted to drugs. After a couple of run-ins with law enforcement, she chose to complete a drug treatment program. Niki's mother, Nancie, said she got clean, and she was "like a new person". In July 1998, Niki's old boyfriend started calling her and asking her to come back to Utah. Despite Nancie begging her not to go because she was pregnant, she went back to Utah anyway. She moved into an apartment with him in Midvale, Utah. In October 1998, they welcomed a baby girl. Niki went back to Washington twice. She went back once and stayed for a month or so, and then she came back again, but so did the drug use. Niki had been recently arrested twice by police in Utah. Whenever Nancie saw Niki for the last time, it was when she took Niki and Niki's daughter to the airport in October 1999. Nancie sensed something was wrong. Nancie said, "I just remember her walking down and waving goodbye to her and just watching her get on the plane and having a little sinking feeling that things were not going to be good." When Niki went back to Utah this time, she chose not to give out new contact information to her family. Nancie's instincts were right. In March of 2000, Nancie learned that Child Protective Services in Utah had been to Niki's apartment. CPS didn't like the conditions that Niki's daughter was living in. Niki last spoke to Nancie over the phone, and Niki said that the next day there was going to be a hearing to determine what was going to happen to her daughter. Niki was upset that CPS had taken custody of her 1-year-old daughter. Nikole and Joel were also being evicted from their apartment. The little baby was taken away and Joel's parents eventually got custody of the girl. Niki then disappeared, literally. Joel never saw her, and his parents never saw her. Before CPS had entered the scene, Niki and Joel had split up. Niki Bakoles was last seen in on March 15, 2000 living with Joel in a hotel. Joel stated they had an argument and that he left. He claims that was the last time he ever saw her. Niki's family lost contact with her, which they attributed to tension regarding her living situation. Niki had been moving around in Utah so much that they lost track of her address and phone number. They thought they she just needed time to herself because of all that had happened. Even though they were concerned, family members initially didn't feel they could report her to police as a missing person because they weren't even sure where she was residing. Her family reported her missing on March 13, 2000. Police investigated, but didn't find any clues to Niki's whereabouts. Authorities in Utah say the family didn't "officially" ''report her missing until 2003, where she was actually listed as missing, but the Niki's relatives say they called authorities, first in Washington state, and even hired a private investigator, but made little headway without knowing her address in Utah or having proof she even vanished. ''Note: Sources are mixed on where Niki was from. She was from either Renton, Auburn, Seattle, or Tacoma, Washington. Saltair Sally Case & Identification Her bones were found near the Great Salt Lake on October 8, 2000. Salt Lake City police were called to investigate a body half-buried in tall grass on the shore of the Great Salt Lake near the abandoned Saltair concert hall, within 100 feet of Interstate 80. Duck hunters had stumbled upon some badly decomposed human remains. All that remained were a skull, 26 bones, and several long strands of hair. Detectives say that it had been there a while, as the animals had gotten to it. There was little clothing found at the scene. A necklace/choker with three strands of small blue beads woven into a rope type design were found entangled in her long, waist-length hair. There is mixed information on how the remains were found: some sources say that the remains were just found buried in a shallow grave and that pieces of an extra-large Hanes t-shirt were found in close proximity to the bones, but some sources also say that buried in a shallow grave was a large plastic bag containing a white sock, an oversized t-shirt, the choker, bones, a long ponytail, and a human skull. Investigators believed that the woman had been dead for one to two years before she was found, and that contributed to the difficulty in identifying the remains. She was dubbed "Saltair Sally" by police. No local missing persons reports fit the biological profile of Saltair Sally's remains, and neither the facial reconstruction nor a description of the personal effects yielded any clues to her identity. Nancie recognized the reconstruction of Niki, but police said that there would be no way it was her, as the height, weight, hair color, dates, etc. didn't match up with her description. Stable isotope analysis from her hair that showed that Saltair Sally had spent many years of her life in the Pacific Northwest. Using this, authorities found Niki's case, did a DNA test, and, in 2012, the results came back positive, identifying Niki as Saltair Sally. Theories *Niki may have been seeing an older man in Utah, but no one knows for sure. Nancie thinks that Niki may have briefly worked at a restaurant near her apartment. *Based on the remote location where her body was found, police say her death was likely a homicide. The theory is she was killed along Interstate 80, or her body was dumped there. Foul play is suspected. *The drive from the hotel Niki was last seen at and the place her remains were found is about 20 minutes apart. On top of that, many sources claim that on I-80 there is a lot of privacy, and it would be easy to dump a body off and have no one notice for a long time. *UPD says detectives have reopened the case but have no suspects. Authorities have already questioned Joel, and he is not considered a suspect in the case. Acquaintances of Niki and Joel, or anyone who knew them between 1997-2000, are encouraged to contact the Unified Police Department to aid in the investigation of Niki's death. Niki's case remains unsolved. Gallery Nbakoles case1.jpg Nbakoles case2.jpg 95195878_134474319984.jpg Bakoles 3d.jpg 200UFUT3.jpg|NCMEC reconstruction, recognized by her mother Links *Seattle Times *KSL *Oregon Live *Deseret News *ABC4 Category:Nicknamed Category:2000 discoveries Category:2000 deaths Category:People found in Utah Category:2012 identifications Category:Presumed homicides Category:Parents Category:Young adults Category:Reconstructed by NCMEC Category:Formerly missing people from Washington Category:White Category:Female Category:Skeletal Category:Drug users Category:Transients